Hello outside world

Two months ago in the Burlington airport we were asked what we were most glad we packed. Some people said socks, others said water bottles, i said my Ipod. Now i realize just how right i was to say that. On our way to anywhere with the foundation students on a bus, they sing to EVERY song on the radio in very high pitched voices. Now at first i enjoyed this but, during the 2 hour ride to see an artificial glacier i cannot express how glad i was to have my Ipod with me . Because i want to be an engineer when i get older i am really interested in the Artificial Glaciers, mostly because it was just so simple, yet effective and that's the engineering ideal. When we arrived i was a little bit surprised by what i saw, there was a huge wall of stone and a small patch of white ice off to the right side. Now essentially the A.G is bunch of rocks piled in different ways to slow down the glacial melt water and allow it to freeze so it can be stored in winter and it can melt faster in summer. Everyone was so excited to go ice skating on the artificial glacier like last year but, when we looked over the retaining wall we were surprised to find that there was in fact no ice. at The entire reservoir was empty except for one small corner filled with snow. When we got over our initial disappointment we got a talk from "the Glacier man" tserang norfel(that's probably spelled totally wrong) he told us that above us was 2 more artificial glaciers and we were going to walk up and see them. At first i was excited, the scenery was beautiful with snow capped mountains and narrow valleys, and the artificial glacier was so cool. Now all this was really cool, but after an hour of straight up hill hiking i was too tired to worry about doing anything besides putting one foot in front of the other. When we finally reached the top, there was a very small patch of ice, maybe the size of a small pond back home and everyone started skating. It was a really cool experience, Mikey, Nick and Schuyler all tried to do tricks off this little hill of ice, sometimes succeeding other times failing, fairly humorously. At the end of the day we all left the day feeling happy, because the downhill walk was significantly easier then the uphill one and our stomachs were full of chapati and apricot jam. We boarded the bus and slowly started creeping down the hill we had just driven up. I put on my ipod thankful for the relaxing music in my head and fell asleep. Only to wake up several minutes later after hitting my head off the side of the bus while we drove over a rough section of road.

Bo Attley

Pizza Night

After over a month of a diet consisting almost exclusively of lentils and potatoes over rice, besides the occasional yummy from our care packages (thank you parents! You have no idea what a difference those make!), the VISpas decided it was time to introduce some classic American (or, I guess, Italian) cuisine to SECMOL. So last Sunday we had pizza night! After scouring Leh on our last trip in for cheese (thank you Bo, who went to no less than five different stores) and tomatoes, we returned to SECMOL campus pumped and ready for action. We began at 9:00 Sunday morning, washing and chopping tomatoes for what turned out to be the biggest vat of tomato sauce I had ever seen. Throughout the day, VISpas wandered in and out of the kitchen whenever we had a spare moment to see what needed to be chopped, grated, kneaded, or rolled. Once the sauce was simmering away on our solar cooker, we mixed flour, salt, yeast, and water to make a ball of dough about the size of a large beach ball. Becky lent us sizable amounts of basil and oregano from her own private stash and at 4:00, the first shift of VISpas headed into the kitchen to commence the actual assembly of between fifteen and twenty pizzas. We topped them with cheese (which comes only in cans here), onions, more basil and oregano, and Mr. James, in an act of incredible generosity, donated a stick of his own personal pepperoni on a pizza especially for the VISpas which was devoured in approximately 16 seconds.

As the evening progressed, the pizza making process got increasingly ridiculous as VISpas began to decorate the waiting pizza crusts with dough animals, hearts, stars, and other whimsical objects. Nicole and Emery took it upon themselves to fashion an entire alligator out of dough (which we baked and set free in the Indus the next morning). American music played in our little kitchen from 4:00 straight through until 10:30, and the atmosphere was as lighthearted and energetic as I had even seen it. It was without a doubt, exactly what we needed to really come together as a community and on top of that, the Ladakhis LOVED it!

By the end of the night, all of us were so full that we were essentially incapacitated. We collapsed on the benches in the kitchen, unable to move or speak in complete sentences, the word "pizza" bringing a wave of nausea over all of us who had eaten more than any of us cared to calculate. Of course, the next morning, upon learning that there were leftovers, we decided to forgo the chipati and dal offered to us, opting instead for the bits and pieces of pizza we were too sick to even think about the night before.

-Nora

its finally springtime here! the days are really warm and sunny, the trees are about to explode with leaves. we (mailny the girls) have been sleeping outside on the roof almost every night for the past couple of weeks. with tons of blankets and layers of clothing, it's very comfortable laying under the shooting stars and listening to the wild dogs barking in the desert. in the morning we wake up early with the sun beating down on us and we try to stay asleep for a bit longer by burying our heads in our sleeping bags, but soon we get up and go down to breakfast. the first time we slept outside, we were all almost asleep when everyone noticed that there was a dzo on the other side of the roof. all they could see was its giant shape in the dark. everything about this trip is so funny and strange.. a few weeks ago ella, emery, max, laura and i went on a bone hunting expedition. becky had mentioned something about there being human bones up on the hillside and we decided to go see for ourselves. the landscape near secmol is the most bizzare thing, its a regular desert if you just look at the ground, with small dusty rocks and a few tiny dry plants, but then all of a sudden the ground turns into a mountain, and then behind that there are snow-covered mountains, and behind that are clouds. and the indus river reminds me of the grand canyon with the huge cliffs on either side. anyway, we felt like we were in a movie or video game or weird dream as we walked along a small stream through the brown desert, all of us holding sticks and listening to techno music from pheylan's speaker. we found a lot of unmistakably human bones-- ribs, femurs, vertabre, finger bones, and a perfect skull with all its teeth. after being really excited and slightly creeped out for a while, we put them back where we found them and went back to secmol. nobody there seems to know why the bones are there.

Ali

SECMOL Campus

Hi Parents,
Just a quick update, we are back at SECMOL and spending the next month focusing on academics, interspersed with some guest speakers and a few fieldtrips. Yesterday we took a trip to Choglamsar, the Tibetan Refuge Colony, outside of the city of Leh, to visit the Tibetan Children's Village School, hear about the history of the Tibet conflict, and hear the story of a man who escaped from Tibet as a small boy. This week James's English class has been wrapping up reading Patrick French's Tibet, Tibet and learning about Tibetan history. SECMOL hosted a Cultural Workshop this week, so campus has been quite busy with the pounding of traditional drums, flute playing, singing, and lots and lots of dancing! VISpas attended the final performance. Many care packages arrived in the mail, and there were many big smiles! Phone calls to SECMOL Campus have also been much appreciated, the best times to call are mornings and evenings (Indian Time), when students are usually in the kitchen having breakfast or dinner, or in the dorms.

To give you an idea of the days here, the morning begins with 7:50 VIS student meeting, (some students on cow duty and solar duty start their days much earlier, 5:30 or 6:30am!) 8am breakfast,9am work hour, 10am class, 11am tea, 11:30 class, 12:15 class, 1pm lunch, 2pm class, 3-4 freetime, 4pm afternoon tea, 4:30 responsibilities, 6pm class (some days), and 7:30 dinner, 8:30 evening activities.

If you call, most likely a Ladakhi student will answer. They are learning English, and most are quite good but it helps to speak slowly and to just keep repeating your VIS student's name...eventually they'll find the right person! Often to fill airtime one of the other VIS students may pick up the phone while someone else is running over to the dormitory. Internet has been out on campus, but we've been in Leh about once a week and you probably have heard from your VISpa by now. (I hope!)

The Sham trek was wonderful. Lots of snow, lots of hiking, everyone has acclimatized extraordinarily well. Several students have posted about the homestay experience, and I just uploaded both a photo of one homestay family and one of the group on a pass around 13,000 feet, on our hardest day. In Environmental Science, we've been doing a unit on Agriculture and Appropriate Technology, so students spent their freetime in villages interviewing villagers about topics ranging from Composting Toilets, to Water Wheels (for grinding grain), to Seabuckthorn Fencing (used like barbed wire, to keep cows from damaging precious trees), to Oil Drum Stoves and Cow Dung Fuel, and many, many more. In conjunction with English, James taught a journalism workshop and students have just turned in their final articles.

Fieldtrips to Stok Monastary, the Tibetan Colony, and guest speakers on Ancient Futures, a Buddhism Workshop, and Nick's unit on Buddhism have occupied our Ladakh Then and Now Class, as well as discussions on the book Tibet, Tibet and newspaper articles. Ladakhi class has gotten off to a very slow start, as our Ladakhi teacher has been sick, but James has been teaching the class and students got some intensive practice during homestay visits! We are getting a new Ladakhi teacher begining next week.

This photo is one of the main building at SECMOL, during the Culture Workshop, the uppermost floor houses the school's library and the girl's dorm, and the lower floor is the auditorium and classrooms. That's about all for now, as I write this, everyone is happy and healthy and enjoying Ladakh.
Julley,
Amy

Hemischupachen

A photo from one of our homestay homes in the village of Hemischupachen, on the Sham Trek, where we spent two nights researching appropriate technology, enjoying tea, helping to make dinner, and playing cricket with the 2 small boys in the family. In the photo is the homestay family (mom, dad, grandmother, 2 young boys) VISpas Max, Emery, Schuyler, Laura, and me, and Tenzing, a SECMOL student who came on trek with us to help translate.
-Amy

Sham Trek

A group photo of us on the Sham Trek, somewhere around 13,500 feet!

On the trail

On the trail on a long day, VISpas and the two cheerful Ladakhi horsemen who accompanied us on the trek, carrying our gear (and a few of us!) on their beautiful ponies.

Homestay in Yangtang

Photos from our first night of homestays, village of Yangtang

Back from the trek!

Six days clambering around sandy, rocky, snowy mountains and we're back at SECMOL, thank goodness! Everybody had a fantastic time, despite some sickness and sore injuries. The first day we left our taxis in a blizzard, snow accumulating quickly on our backpacks and frozen hats. Later, as we descended a mountain pass the snow stopped and we stopped for lunch, chowing down on some delicious peanut butter, apricot jam bread and kit-kats. When we reached our first home stay in the town of Yangtang, we were all exhausted, huddling around the small stove drinking tea. Our days were quite similar to this for the rest of the trek, drinking tea and eating biscuits around the fire. Every home stay seemed more welcoming than the previous, and despite the remoteness of some, there was always plenty of warm and tasty food to eat with no shortage of tea.

The second night in Ule, the most remote village, was very cool. I stayed at a house far removed from the rest of the tiny village with two other vispas, James, and Jigdol, one of the SECMOL students who joined us on the trek. We stayed with an elderly couple whose children were living elsewhere. They treated us very well, cooking a lunch of boiled barley balls fried in yak cheese and butter with sugar. At night, the father tucked us in with the heaviest and itchiest blankets ever, made from yak wool.

The rest of the trek came with favorable weather and an even nicer home stay in Hemishukpachen. I stayed in a large house with three other vispas, Amy and Tenzin, another SECMOL student. Highlights included: Being served tea an biscuits in bed, an incredibly cute two and a half year old and an overall incredibly kind and happy family. I was also able to find out lots about my appropriate technology, terracing. (For which we're all writing articles).

The last day of trekking started with an incredibly fun run down the side of a very snowy mountain, led by our trusty guide Tashi, with lots of whooping and shouts of excitement. Others followed, tumbling into the fluffy snow. We all dried ourselves at the bottom in the intense Ladakhi sun. An hour later we started our ascent up a very, very steep hill. At the top we felt truly accomplished, chowing down on more peanut butter, chocolate and apricots.

The trek was more than just fun; the night after we got back we all told each other about our fondest memories, whether it was playing cricket with a two year old, getting to eat meat, understanding a conversation between a mother and her son in Ladakhi, simply because what was happening was so familiar, or the simple amazement with home stays, Ladakhi villages and the beautiful landscape.

(posted by Schuyler)

Trekking Homestays

After a few hours of Trekking in the Himalayas, its nice to have a welcoming family to serve you hot sweet tea and biscuits, or the traditional Ladakhi bread. Our first homestay split the VIS group between two houses. Three Ladakhi's from SECMOL accompanied us on our Trek, so they were split between us. There was alot of time to walk around, and enjoy the scenery. The mountians were breathtaking, and always different in each village. The night consisted of eating Skew, and drinking lots of tea. The cold night is warmed by our sleepingbags along with the many blankets our homestay parents brought us. After a nice breakfast of Jipati and Dal, its time to Trek again.
The rest of our homestays split us between 4-6 houses. That put 2-3 VISpa's together with eithor one SECMOLpa, James, Amy, or Nick. The small amount of people make the experience much more interesting. None of my Parents throughout all the homestays spoke any English at all. It was a task to interact with them when all you know how to say is Jullay and a few random words. Even with the language barrier, everyone is so nice and friendly, and never fail to fill your teacup. These homestays have opened my eyes to where the students from SECMOL really come from.

Jullay!

- Mikey Piscitelli